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The Sorrel Colt

Lynch, Benito

February 1st, 2010 · 2 Comments

The other day I was walking through a blistering, blustery, blinding-white below-zero snowstorm, cursing the day I decided not to live on a Caribbean island, and doubly cursing the day I decided not to be born with antifreeze for blood. Because if I had been born with antifreeze for blood, I’d probably have other alien characteristics as well, such as the ability to launch an anvil from my hand that I could drop on the head of the person walking in the snowstorm next to me when that person proclaimed: “at last! This is what January is SUPPOSED to be like.”

 
 The Sorrel Colt by Benito Lynch [20:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Gregory

Ioannides, Panos

January 12th, 2010 · 7 Comments

So, I know very little about the author of tonight’s story. He has no Wikipedia page in any language that I can gather, one used copy of an out-of-print collection of stories available in English (that I can cursorily find, anyhow), and a slight dusting of a presence in literary anthologies, including one in which I dusted off this. In fact, the only thing I’m certain of regarding tonight’s author is that I really ought to attempt to learn basic Greek pronunciation if I’m going to crack at anything like this again.

 
 Gregory by Panos Ioannides [15:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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DiGrasso

Babel, Isaac

January 6th, 2010 · 2 Comments

Oh, aren’t we lucky!? A double-bluffed, double-dipped, double-headed dose of Isaac Babel. When you’ve had a listen here and discover that you’re still running low on your recommended daily serving of Babel, you might head here to find a new recording of an old reading of another one.

 
 DiGrasso by Isaac Babel [14:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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On Hope

Holst, Spencer

December 22nd, 2009 · 3 Comments

I can think of nothing more apt for the rounding-out of a year than a fleeting little fable on outplaying inevitability. If you’re anything like me, Inevitability is one collector you’ve managed to send off-course at least once this year, and that itself is cause for champagne. Happy New Decade to all, but especially to those who continue to believe relentlessly in the potential of literature.

 
 On Hope by Spencer Holst [10:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Emmy Moore’s Journal

Bowles, Jane

December 19th, 2009 · 4 Comments

There was a time when I was little (and I was so cute, and so little!) when I wanted to be Jane Bowles. I was obsessed with the puppet show, unhealthily so, though thinking back now, I can’t think of any self-respecting adult who’d have introduced such a cute little thing to it.

 
 Emmy Moore's Journal by Jane Bowles [19:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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The Interior Castle

Stafford, Jean

December 2nd, 2009 · 4 Comments

I’m more than a little eager to introduce this bit of Jean Stafford– in fact, the last time I was this eager, I was about to jump out of an airplane, an activity I was undertaking using age-faked identification, which was, to the best of my memory, the only time I’ve ever vomited directly onto the feet of an airplane pilot (the pilot then said this wasn’t the first time his feet had taken ablutions this way). And wait, I don’t mean to conflate Jean Stafford with my own underage retching.

 
 The Interior Castle by Jean Stafford [61:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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The Bound Man

Aichinger, Ilse

November 19th, 2009 · 4 Comments

My friends, a confession: I am a sucker. Little stray kittens and musty books and vegetably steamed dumplings…. these things were basically made for me. And stories like this belong on the list of things for which I’m a true sucker, and by “like this” I don’t necessarily mean Austrian (though I don’t mean “decidedly not Austrian” either). And I don’t necessarily mean the sort of story that plucks your arteries and uses them to serenade you corrido-style. Although, again, I don’t have anything against that either….

 
 The Bound Man by Ilse Aichinger [41:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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The Pool of the Stone God

Merritt, A.

October 30th, 2009 · 4 Comments

For those of you who will not be spending the weekend dressed scandalously and behaving just as badly, or scaring young children, or throwing personal hygiene product in the trees of your enemies, …

 
 The Pool of the Stone God by A. Merritt [11:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective

Stevenson, Robert Louis

October 21st, 2009 · No Comments

It was recommended some time ago by a guy named Alex that I read the entire four-story cycle of The Rajah’s Diamond, and it is a request I’ll perhaps fill someday. I’m in the throes of a mini Stevenson obsession right now, so it seems the proper and selfish thing to do. But for now, I wanted to warn you that as an aperitif, what I’m offering here is, in fact, the last story in the cycle.

 
 The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective by Robert Louis Stevenson [20:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Trouble at Pow Crash Creek

Birrell, Heather

October 7th, 2009 · 4 Comments

It’s probably one of the better things in life — right up there with creative breakthroughs and lasting love and the slurp of streetside oysters — to have one’s hat tipped to new and great authors. In my case, it doesn’t happen often, because I’m finicky and discriminating with my own tastes, or as others have said, snotty. Some of my closest friends, in fact, have sworn never again to share enthusiasm of their own discoveries, for fear of my response. I’m not proud of this….

 
 Trouble at Pow Crash Creek by Heather Birrell [55:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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